Chapter Two

Beth turned and glared at her friend, but the crack of the bat had her eyes readjusting as Sammy connected, sending the perfect pitch flying toward the fence in center field. Clearly, the opposing team hadn’t been sprinting in practice because it seemed to take forever for the Silverton field man to get himself to where the ball had landed. By then, Shane, who’d doubled before Kyle came to bat, was jogging into home, and Sammy was rounding second.

Holding her breath, Beth set her pencil aside and watched the third base coach, one of the other dads, wave Sammy to third. Finally having retrieved the ball, the center fielder, whose arms were as big around as barrels, rocketed the ball to his cutoff man. It was going to be close.

Sammy slid into third, a plume of dust clouding Beth’s view as the third baseman, a lanky guy whose curly hair stuck out around his cap in every direction, reached in for the tag. The ump was right there, and gave the signal as he shouted, “Safe!” and Beth cheered, along with everyone else in attendance. Of course he was safe. She’d never doubted it for a moment.

Standing up and dusting his hands across his white and navy blue striped uniform, Sammy took his hat off, ran his hand through his blond hair, and recomposed himself. For a second, Beth thought maybe he was looking at her as his eyes weren’t quite fixed on the batter, but then they drifted back down, and Lexy breathed in deeply before announcing Tom Black at the bat.

“We scored,” Andi reminded Lexy as soon as she turned the mic off.

“So?” Lexy asked, confused. “I know.”

“It’s nine to two now.” Andi reached across Lexy and changed the scoreboard, and someone down in the bleachers shouted up a snide, “Thank you.”

“Gotta make sure you’ve got the score right,” Beth reminded her friends, trying to keep the annoyance out of her own voice. Her book was right, she’d made sure of that, and now she had a few moments to stare at Sammy while he attempted to trick the pitcher into thinking there was a chance he might try to steal home. Of course, that wouldn’t happen without a wild pitch, but it was fun to watch him take a huge lead off the bag and then scramble back each time the pitcher looked in his direction.

“Sorry,” Lexy muttered in response to her comment. “I guess I should stop staring down the third base line and do my job.”

“Hey!” Beth said turning to look at her friend. “Scorebook is right.”

Lexy laughed, loudly, and Beth shook her head. “Whatever, Lexy. We all know that you’re not here to keep me company. You know, I’ll see Michael at practice tomorrow at the batting cages, and you won’t be there. Maybe I’ll mention….”

“If you do, you’d better never put me on the microphone again.” Lexy’s eyes were narrow behind her glasses, and Beth grinned, making sure her friend knew she was just joking around. She wouldn’t say anything to Michael Splinter unless Lexy wanted her to, even though of all the guys on the team, he was about the only one who ever had anything to say to her, except to ask for a piece of gum. The rest of them seemed to think of her as Shane’s lame little sister.

There had been that brief exchange with Sammy, though, at practice a few days ago. He’d been nice to her, and she’d appreciated being spoken to as a person who had been around baseball her whole life and had some knowledge of how the sport was played. He’d asked her who she thought was going to win the World Series this year, and when she’d said the Blue Jays, he’d been surprised, noting he’d assumed she’d say either the Royals or the Cardinals. She hadn’t had time to go into her thinking, but she hoped she’d have a chance to talk to him about it again soon. Maybe after the game. Tonight.

“It’s four hundred degrees in here,” Lexy groaned, clearing the scoreboard at the end of the eighth. It had looked as if Barryville might win in a mercy rule in the sixth, but Silverton just kept hanging on. Now, with the score twelve to four, it seemed Lexy was ready for Silverton to throw in the towel and chalk it up to a bad opening game.

“When do they play again?” Andi asked.

“Thursday. In Mineral Mines.” Road games were either awesome or horrible. Her dad almost always let her take a friend, and this time of year Beth was very popular with the other girls in the group of four or five she hung out with during the school year. Everyone wanted to ride with her in the off chance one of the cute boys from the team would need a ride, which was usually the case. Sometimes her mom’s mini-van would be full of ball players, and since Shane had to sit in the front on longer trips due to his car sickness, it often meant an uncomfortable ride for Beth next to one of the guys in the middle seat. At least if she had a friend with her, she could sit in the way back and have someone else alongside her who likely didn’t mind squeezing into the back with a guy they hardly knew. The town was small, but Shane was two years older than her, and most of these guys were his age and had heard for the last fifteen years that Beth Monroe was a brainiac, a nerd, and a total loser, thanks to her brother’s propaganda. Few of them wanted to sit in the back next to her….

“Beth, did you hear me?”

Andi was literally jostling her arm, and Beth had to check the scoreboard against her book, not sure if she’d recorded the last few pitches, before she said, “Uh, no. What?”

“I said, who are you taking?”

“Oh, right. I… I’m not sure. I’ll have to wait and see if we have an extra seat.”

“I call dibs,” Andi said, staring at Lexy like a fight might break out if she dared to toss her own name into the hat.

“Okay.” Beth cleared her throat. Sammy was playing first base, and her eyes lingered there a little too long. She thought somehow he had noticed, even though she realized the angle from first up to the booth had to be a difficult one. It was like he could feel her looking at him.

“That’s not fair,” Lexy muttered. “I call the next away game, then.”

The girls were discussing whose turn it was to go with her, but Beth was too busy staring at Sammy to even notice. She knew he wouldn’t need a ride. His dad was a member of the coaching staff, and his parents never missed a game. One good thing about the booth was that Mrs. Burk couldn’t possibly notice how intently Beth was staring at her son. She was an elementary school teacher, known for her sternness, and her husband, who owned a furniture store in town, was a bit kooky. They were an odd couple, and one of the first things Beth’s mom had said when she, unfortunately, became aware of her daughter’s crush was, “Think about what you’re marrying into,” and rolled her eyes. Evelyn Monroe was as honest as the day was long, and while Beth rarely got along with her mother, she had to give her a little credit for that one.

A car drove by blaring “Whomp, There It is,” causing the batter to zone out a bit, and Beth recorded another strike as the first base coach screamed at him to keep his head in the game.

“I love this song,” Lexy declared, flipping the switch on the scorekeeping machine. “Whomp! Fat ass! Whomp Fat ass!” she sang, rocking her head back and forth.

Beth looked up from the scorebook and caught Andi’s eyes across their friend. They both broke out laughing hysterically, and Lexy looked up, confused. “What?”

“Do you seriously think that’s what they’re saying?” Andi asked as soon as she could breathe.

Beth reached over and cleared the board as the hitter headed back to the dugout, but it was too late to avoid Mr. Cooper’s wrath. “Ladies, pay attention, or we’ll have to find someone who can!”

“Sorry, Mr. Cooper!” Beth shouted back down to him. Normally, she’d show him the book was correct, but that was impossible now that she was ten feet above the ground. While her friends might be off-task or distracted, Beth had been keeping score since she was nine years old and had it down. Rarely did she make a mistake, and when she did, it was usually Sammy related….